The hawks have gone, and so I have nothing to watch and it is raining intermittently so it seems like a good time to commit some more observations to paper. This edition of the Hong Kong Diary should include some pictures of our view and the apartment. Jason owns a web site and if he can get the wrinkles out I should be able to post some pictures that you might enjoy seeing. Many of you responded to the last epistle and we thank you for the interest you’ve shown in our Asian adventure; we will follow-up on your responses with more personal anecdotes and comments. Generic can be bland.
Speaking of the Internet, we have been having a lot of fun with internet cameras and mikes. (Logitech 4000 by brand). Our boys have the cameras and so does Kathleen in her office. We have installed the new version of Messenger 6 which has been designed to penetrate some firewalls (some of you will understand the repercussions of that); consequently, we have had great reception recently with both audio and visual. The latter is a little behind; you can make a face or an obscene gesture and then wait a second to see the results on the screen. But, I must admit, and if you know our “Mac” fan older son, he admits that Bill Gates has done a good job with this one. We have hour long conversations with our sons on a regular basis; it is like being there-and at no cost. You need broadband internet service and a camera with a mike but it is very realistic. I talk to Kathleen many times a day while she is in her office. From a more utilitarian point of view, one of Ivey’s faculty members got one and Kathleen and Jeffrey talked every night for a week about what they were going to do with these executive classes in Kuala Lumpur. Great business tool. It really helps to be able to see the person you are talking to-highly recommend them for anyone who wants to keep in touch with family members.
Our apartment still seems to occupy a lot of our time and our planning. I suppose this is logical since we spend so much of the day here-or at least I do. Our furniture arrived from Canada and that is another story. We were missing the computer desk and a large painting-6x6 feet; well, they both arrived but we did have some casualties. Our living room lamp has been without a shade; well, they found a shade in our storage in Toronto but it was from a cheap lamp we had in one of the bedrooms upstairs. These workers don’t know squat so we sent pictures of our living room lamp (taken from our albums which we brought with us) to the moving company and promptly went out and ordered new lamp shades and a finial or two. They paid! We also ordered two new lamps for the bedroom; they look very nice-aged brass, very aged, green, 50-75 years old; they are heavier than sin. This was necessary because of the pouched bedside lamps. Just one of a number of appliances that have hit the dirt. I still fear for my scanner. I have a converter that is probably 8 inches long by 4 inches; I just hope it can handle the surges in electricity generated by a scanner; luckily, we have not had any more casualties but I have stopped using some appliances that we brought from Canada. I’m not sure how long the coffee grinder will last. I digress but downstairs in this fabulous store called Greats there is a coffee section in which they roast their own beans. Just tell them what combination you want and they put the beans into the roaster; you get to watch the whole process and to smell your beans coming to fruition. I could become passionate about this; you can’t get coffee any fresher. Move over Starbucks.
But, back to the apartment. We have bought a number of pieces of art for the place-one piece of crystal, called the tower of prosperity. It seemed to be a fitting purchase for our beginning here. It is by Luilifonggong, the number one maker of crystal pieces in China; they include a certified letter etc; this was a world-wide limited edition of 15. We won’t discuss the price. We also bought a limited edition ceramic vase, an umbrella stand and two street scenes (oil paintings) from Beijing. Each piece comes in its own decorative box with a leather bound picture of the artist giving his/her background and qualifications. I suppose this is necessary in a country that copies everything! We also just finished hanging a beautiful oil of two Chinese boys and a goat. Yes, a goat. It is really very beautiful. We really won’t discuss the price on that one. We admit that we were probably suckered on this one because it reminds us of our own children….tug at the heart strings and all that. The older boy is giving a piggyback ride to the younger one. I showed Jason a copy of the picture via our camera and he said “oh yeah, I remember doing that”….and he also said “I remember the goat we used to have”. Horse’s ass. Kids! Anyway, it is gorgeous and it looks great in the dining room; you should be able to see it in the pictures.
We have really started to settle in. It has helped to get the last shipment from Canada. This included some Christmas decorations and although we hardly need them now it is nice to think that they will be great at the right time. It is important to customize the joint, pictures on the walls, lamps etc. anything that makes that place yours as opposed to a hotel room. We love the apartment but we were reminded of the hotel the other day; we got our bill for the delivery of the newspaper-it came from the Conrad International hotel. The entrance to the hotel is on the other side of the building so we don’t enter the hotel each time we come in; however, this is owned and operated by the Conrad. A few weeks ago we ordered room service-reasonable prices (for HK), fancy linen and silverware, fresh flowers, sparkling water etc. It was very nice and it will be a great default if we don’t feel like cooking. At times like that you appreciate being in a serviced apartment. The regular cleaning staff is wonderful. I practice my Cantonese on them everyday. They are very tolerant of my mistakes. Grace, the floor supervisor, teaches me a new word or two daily; my lessons have finished but I try to study (and that is the word) for an hour a day. It’s good for the grey cells to get them working again. Errand boy does not have to do much thinking to pick up the dry cleaning. The concierge staff has also been very supportive. I try to speak in complete sentences and they wait patiently for this foreigner to find the words. The previous director’s wife, Jessie, who some of you know had the Parkside staff over for a party. Larry and Kathleen were in Kuala Lumpur so I went as the current Parkside guest. It was fascinating to talk to them as real people and not as service people in uniform. Their knowledge of English gave out quite quickly but we had a good time. To return to the Cantonese-the number 9 is gau; I can’t give you a pronunciation obviously but as it turns out gau is the slang for penis and a whole lot more and worse. I had them pronounce both forms and I swear I can’t tell a 9 from a penis! I could be in a lot of trouble with this language…..but I got a taxi driver to turn right properly and to stop at the right spot so there might be hope. These guys that night only taught me one or two swear words but with a language that has multiple meanings it could be tense. I got a shocked look from a toothless old lady the other day in the Wan Chai market; we were discussing the price of her Bok choi; I thought I said it was too expensive but God only knows why she started to laugh out loud. That poor woman! We were probably arguing over 40 cents.
Busy, busy, busy. People ask me what I do when they find out I’m retired; I can honestly say that I have not had a single dull moment or a boring one since we’ve arrived. I know the lady is busy but that is different. We started the month of July with some major Canada Day celebrations in the bar area-Lan Kwai Fong. Ivey sponsored some of the promo so they had a huge banner that was strung from one side of the street to the other; these streets are narrow but it was neat to see a Canadian business school so prominently displayed. They estimated the next day that there were 10,000 people out that night; most had on Canadian colours or were waving Canadian flags etc. The idea was to celebrate Canada day and Canada’s history of 75 years in Hong Kong; it was a great idea and the school got a lot of good pr out of the day…and so did Canada. The next day we went on a junk trip to Lamma Island. There are 35,000 islands around HK, most of them uninhabitable; this one is a short ride (1 hour) away. We went with the Canadian-Chinese group-there were probably 200 of us on various boats; one attraction is the seafood which is hauled out of the aquariums and served as fresh as possible. Fabulous. There were only 10 of us on this special boat; the captain took us on a scenic tour all around the island before going back to port. Magnificent. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky-beautiful scenery-it sure wasn’t London Ont. I tell you. Kathleen joined me on the top of the deck and it was on this trip that we realized that we had moved away and that days like this would be the norm from now on.
The rest of the month has flown by-we have gone to 4-5 dinner parties and held 3 of our own. All of these were social, for the most part, and not part of the duty bound day of Ivey. We have met some fascinating people. One is a writer and she has just finished a book on China that I enjoyed very much: A Million Truths: A Decade in China by Linda Jakobson; she is Danish and she spent over a decade in China. What a curious country. I can’t do justice to a summary of her book but it sure gives you an update on some of the promises and problems of the country. We have met a New Zealand couple who had 20 years on a farm outside of Kitchener-Waterloo. They were serious farmers who pride themselves on being self-sufficient all those years. I met the principal of the Canadian school here in HK. When he learned of my credentials he offered me a job for September; I declined but I said I would come and visit the school to see the facilities. He went on to offer the world-limited class size and only one or two classes a week if that is all I wanted. I declined, but….if that boring moment comes along I might reconsider. We have also met an engineer who is partly responsible for NASA’s satellites, who was at the latest launch; he has a fascinating background. Most of the couples are older or perhaps our age and frequently they have had expat assignments in many other parts of the world. You can spend the whole evening listening to their great stories of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or life in Japan for seven years or of life in the streets of Bangkok. It makes you realize that most of us have not been exposed to many lifestyles or cultures; almost everyone here has and it is enviable in many ways. The have not just visited a country but rather they have lived in the new environment for a number of years. Most have had an average of three placements. They seem to revel in the diversity; they also take just about anything in their stride which is another enviable characteristic.
Well, errand boy is indeed very busy. I spend almost every day in the Wan Chai market. I’ve tried to source many of our favourite food items; this is no small feat. Greats, mentioned above is spectacular for one stop shopping-fresh produce, specialty items, food from around the world and a restaurant to boot as well as a new Ben and Jerry’s. (Now that is a problem-I think I was their first customer. They gave out promotional discount coupons-big mistake.) Greats meat and fish, read salmon, is about 5 times the Canadian price. Oh, that hurts. How are we going to survive and still have good stuff to serve at dinner parties. Wan Chai to the rescue. I recall talking about the spices in the previous edition-lime leaves and galangal. It goes on and on. I found a sushi place that carries sushi obviously, but fresh salmon at below the Canadian price. I have also found shrimp; they are Thai; you have to ask; you don’t want shrimp from the Hong Kong harbour. I have sourced a frozen food place that sells quality USA and Aussie beef, pork etc. The manager also speaks English and will cut and wrap whatever size you want. I have found a good Mexican restaurant that will sell their home-made nachos in huge bags; we love Mexican. All of this sourcing takes time as you can imagine and without a car you have to walk and carry-witness the bag man . You really do need to find these places in my opinion; I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices of shops like Greats. The supermarkets are good for many items and they are reasonably priced but it is necessary to source most meat and fish. I even found Canadian Maple syrup at a price that doesn’t make it worthwhile to bring it in from Canada! The one item I haven’t been able to find is Canadian Cheddar or its equivalent-so eat your hearts out-there is no substitute in the world-the British and Aussie cheddar takes like chalk.
I have also been busy still at the Y. They had a get acquainted group that I joined-nice people-most new to HK. We visited some temples and ruins and went on a hike up our peak and down to a great restaurant; the spouses joined us for a boat trip to Lamma Island. (The lady was in Kuala Lumpur again); I still see some of this group on a regular basis. I’ve joined the Aussie association; this is largely a group of women who meet each Friday at the restaurant in Greats that I spoke of. There are a few men who are also house husbands but not many. ( We number three now and have formed this bond) I have had a lot of fun with this group and I have joined them for other functions. We just missed the “piss up” they hold once a month, spouses included, but we will catch the next one (250 people at the last one). It’s a good party and a great chance to meet some new people. I have gone a number of times to mainland China, Shenzhen, which is a ‘special administrative’ zone set-up much like HK; read, entrepreneurial and very prosperous; over 20 million in the city in the last decade. There is a 5 floor mall there that sells knock-offs, good copies and poor copies of absolutely anything. We get all our DVD’s there-I must have 30 movies by now-15 hk (divide by 5) for each movie. I’ve also picked up many cd’s-$3.00ea. Canadian. They barter for everything and it is a great deal of fun. There are literally thousands of stores-each has a frontage of about 10 feet max., normally smaller, with a smaller depth. They display seconds that are legal to sell but they will let you into the back room; you have to ask and know that it exists but if you ask you are taken to another stall that appears to be empty. They undo the lock and let you into a small cupboard where the ‘good stuff’ is kept. They carry a lot of purses and women’s shoes; I defy you to tell the fake from the real object. The fake comes in its own bag with tags inside and out, and with special warranties and guaranties. You’ve got to see it to believe it! They also have tailors there; I had a shirt made-custom measured etc.; I wasn’t happy with this tailor but I have since tried one that a HK friend recommended; she has been in town for six years. I picked the material for another dress shirt; it was gorgeous; I also had them copy a pair of dress shorts that I like. To make a long story short they were terrific-they even delivered free to Hong Kong. The dress shirt cost less than $25.00 Canadian and they shorts were less than that. We are thinking of inviting our boys up there to have some shirts, pants, and suits made when they come over at Christmas.
Fakes are not limited to Shenzhen. I went to a computer mall that is supposed to be legitimate. How one knows is beyond me but it was recommended by Ivey’s tech. guy. I had to go because our printer died; another casualty of the power discrepancy I think; our keyboard was old so I replaced that as well with a wireless board and mouse. The monitor also died; did I mention that! It’s important to support the local economy and we sure have been good. There was a software place in the mall that I saw. The prices were cheap-5 programs for Can. $20…is that cheap or what? They had hundreds of programs-anything Microsoft makes plus all the latest. I normally pay for software and these are my first fakes-I’m feeling pangs of guilt just recalling this but I bought 5 programs. I paid and he shuffled me out of the store. I wondered what was happening; his buddy showed me a picture of a man on a palm pilot. I was told to go outside the mall, up the ramp and to wait outside the Mac Donald’s store and to look and wait for this man. I would have to wait 20-25 minutes. I couldn’t believe it! All I had was a number and some faith that there is honour amoung thieves. Well, I went; I waited along with well dressed business people, and students and housewives. After 30min. this man appeared out of nowhere, threw a bag behind the garbage bin; another man dropped to his knees behind the bin and started handing out little plastic bags that corresponded to the numbers on our pieces of paper. I thought the Chinese police would arrive any minute. Yes, I got all my software and it all works flawlessly. I still don’t think I’ll go back. I can see the headlines-spouse of Ivey Dean caught in software scam! Not good….but I love my new software.
Enough about me. The lady says all she does is go to work, come home, go back to work, and come home, go…. She is right to a certain extent. She still continues to put in some long hours; she was there until after 10:00 the other night and she will be there tonight until after 10:00. She continues to go in most Saturdays. There has been some relief because this is the summer, obviously, and everyone gets out of the heat. Businesses tend to slack off and many of her duties are relaxed; however, having said that, this week another faculty member flies in to get ready to kick-off the new class of EMBA’s which starts on Sunday. The lady is actually teaching the first module as she has done for the last five years. She shares the load with this colleague; one takes the morning session and the other the afternoon and then they reverse duties. Good standards and habits are set in this time frame; they choose their work groups that they will be in for the next two years; it is an important session; they are in residence-entrenched in the Grand Hyatt-a five star hotel. Even though they may live in Hong Kong and most of them do, they are required to stay at the hotel; then, they have a short walk to the Ivey campus in the Convention Centre and they can meet regularly with their classmates for case discussions. It would be fair to say that she is enjoying her job more and more everyday but there are a lot of issues that must be addressed in the short and long run. She has her work cut out for her. We talk about office issues on a regular basis but I’m not at liberty to share those issues so there is very little that I can talk about at Ivey. There has been a bright spot this week and for the last few weeks. As a result of SARS recruiting meetings had to be cancelled; no one was coming out to public meetings with strangers if they could avoid it. They predicted that their class numbers would be down significantly; however, they have rebounded and by this week the numbers were 49 in the class on Sunday-down only 1 or 2 from last year. Much relief. They are launching a part-time EMBA program in January and the ads have already started for that; needless to say this entails a great deal of planning and discussion; the launch must be co-coordinated with Ivey at Western since all the faculty will be flown in for this program as well. When this program starts in January there will be 2-3 faculty here almost every week of the month. Kathleen has to spend time with them and it is customary for the spouses to be entertained as well. That’s where errand boy comes in. I will be even busier. I look forward to showing the city to the spouses. We try to make this a positive experience for the faculty member and their spouse-there will be many more dinner parties after the New Year.
Separately, and together we have enjoyed much of Hong Kong. Each Sunday we try to pick a new restaurant and go for brunch. Almost every place has a happy hour and also a ‘set menu’ for lunch which makes HK almost reasonable. We have had fun shopping for the apartment and for some clothes for the lady. There is a department store here called Lane Crawford which is expensive but exclusive in many ways. July and August are sale months and bargains are to be had. This store is comparable to Holt Renfrew in Toronto. They cater, of course, to wealthy Asians so the popular sizes of dresses are 2 and 4 and 6. I can imagine some of you reading this saying ‘you’ve got to be kidding’. They even have a size zero. They just laugh when Kathleen walks into many stores. Occasionally, there are one or two outfits left that were too big for the Asians; the lady is not big but she would never fit into a 6. Now, she does have big feet and she would say so herself; she has taken to having her shoes custom made. It seems to be the only route; the shoes, and clothes, for that matter, are all sized for the munchkins. Errand boy can get golf shirts and copies in Shenzhen so this is not an issue for me. What else does a retired guy need?
Through the contacts in the Aussie group that I have been seeing, we went on our first hike the other day-15kms.; it was graded a 1.5 out of 5 but I’ll kill the son of a bitch who gave this hike that rating. It almost killed both of us at one point-perhaps 100 steps if not more on one of the legs. We were a group of 30; the kids frolicked ahead and glared at us from the summit. I hate kids. It was fun. Hiking is a popular activity in Hong Kong. Did you know that 40% of the island is natural woodland, reservoirs and hiking trails? No, you did not know that. Most people only know the skyscrapers and the harbour view. Some wise British Bureaucrat decided in the fifties that it was important to preserve the wilds of HK; we like the British. All the hikes are charted and mapped. The miles and kilometers are all signed; there are washrooms and other facilities along each trail. Some go for literally hundreds of miles if you include the new territories. (This was the area on the mainland for about 40 miles that was still considered part of Hong Kong). It was also returned to China. It is possible to be out in mountains, rivers, streams, reservoirs in 10 minutes from the heart of Hong Kong. We will be doing more hiking; it gives you a break from glass and concrete. One book we will be using is put out by the South China Morning Post; cleverly, each hike ends with a superb restaurant. Some we will walk in the morning and have lunch and some will be an afternoon walk followed by dinner; super activity for visiting faculty.
This edition will have some pictures of our apartment and our view as stated above. Many have been asking about our apartment and many are probably operating under misconceptions. Our apartment is approx. 1940 sq. feet; most think we are living in a little flat. Many have that impression of HK; well, I’ve seen 4-5 thousand square foot living quarters that would be the envy of any home owner. They exist and there are many of them. Now, having said that, our apartment is probably only 1200 sq. ft.; they measure from the outside walls and they include public space-elevators, halls and lobbies. I don’t make the rules on this measurement thing but we do have a magnificent lobby-huge. The place has two bedrooms and three bathrooms if one includes the Ahma’s quarters. An Ahma is a maid, normally, Pilipino and most people have one but that is also another story for another edition.
We have just come back from Vietnam. We stayed at a gorgeous resort called Furama, just outside of Da Nang; it is Vietnam’s only five star hotel. We had a marvelous time and it gave the lady a chance to get some well-deserved r and r. But, that is another story…script and pictures to follow in the next edition. We are planning a trip to Guilin in the next few weeks. It will be a chance to get away for four or five days. It seems it is necessary to take a short break every six weeks or so. The previous director followed that pattern and we will likely follow in his footsteps. If you are still reading this you are a saint.
I have included pictures of our apartment. If you have a copy of Adobe Photoshop Album and some of you do then it will open and give you a sound and light show. For those dinosaurs in the list above and there are perhaps 7 or 8 of you on the list, you may have to download from the Adobe site if you don’t have a good PDF format; the download is free so just go to the site (www.adobe.com ) and follow the instructions. The ‘apartment’ slides have music and titles, so crank up your speakers and enjoy.
This novel has been written in stages so it gives me the opportunity to add some observations as the week goes by. The lady survived her first week of the new MBA class; again, there are 5 or 6 in the class with PhD’s who are trying to get a more practical education in business. We’ve had meals with them all week and they seem like an excited, intelligent, keen group. The quality of the class is astounding. These people have accomplished so much. They range in age from early thirties to those in their fifties. Today, Saturday, the group is at the Gold Coast participating in a physical, group building, and team building series of exercises that are designed to help the class bond and to build the collegiality early in the program. As director the lady will have to climb the ropes and vault the streams with the best of them. It should be fun; many are filled with fear and trepidation but if history is correct, they will come away with a very positive attitude by the end of the day.
As I mentioned above, my son, Jason owns a web site and has kindly offered to allow the old man to use it; this involved a great deal of patience on his part as this old fart attempted to deal with new aspects of Windows XP. Well, it is available and this old computer-illiterate thinks he knows what he is doing. I will put pictures on the site on a regular basis starting with views outside our window. I took a harbour tour the other day so those pics should follow shortly. Each picture is labeled so you know what you are looking at. These may or not come with music-probably not-they will be single photographs that you can access. The site is www.slaughter.com/ron . This should bring you right to the pictures. I hope you enjoy our views of Hong Kong.
I’m going to sign off for this issue of the diary. Please let us know what you think of our new home and we will respond to you with a more personal note. If you have any trouble accessing the apt. pics or the web site give me a shout and I’ll find alternatives for you.
Until next time, for Kathleen, and I………………..’Hey Fai’.